M:   Esha hummed as PE explained his views on scars, it actually gave her comfort knowing that he didn't care about them, it made her's feel more invisible and she liked that.

When Castile came by she chuckled, "Nope, he just wants to eavesdrop on us since that's what brothers do. Whenever I happen to be talking to BE, Wales would almost always pop in and pull him away, it's like he knows when his brother is talking to someone at all times, it's kind of scary, really."

The eternal stood and dusted any leftover snow from herself, "Anyway, we should probably go see if Johann is back, maybe tease him a little over his girlfriend, that's always fun."

N:   "Bless his soul if this is your favorite pastime," PE chuckled as he followed suit, the three of them walking back to the horses, where Johann was already waiting for them. The Mandorian was alone, petting his steed while feeding Comet some sugar cubes as a treat, and when he heard them coming, he only quickly glanced at them before returning his attention to his horse.

"Well how was your time spent with Gwyn," the empire smiled as he patted Johann's back, "anything interesting happened between you two?"

"It has been ... informative," the Mandorian grumbled as he promptly ignored the pat, "and currently my decency is the only thing stopping me from fighting her mother, as well as her promise not to do anything. PE, how easily can a woman enter the army?"

The empire went silent in shock before answering, "It depends on her skill, and if her skills are invaluable, then only a fool would not allow her to at least be a soldier. That obviously depends on the country, but from what I have heard BE will allow exceptional circumstances."

"Then I will make sure she's exceptional," the other muttered, "I'll make sure she is the best to get as far away from that woman as possible."

M:   "I knew there was something I didn't like about her," Esha grumbled, scratching Sleipnir's chin, "that woman has a vibe that would make plants wither just by being too close to her, it's no wonder how she hasn't been struck down by Akylos himself."

She then pat Johann's shoulder reassuringly, "Don't worry Johann, everything will be ok, we'll help you, maybe I can pull a few strings with BE, for whatever reason he will listen to me if the topic is fighting and warfare."

"Probably because you are a living weapon," Neflen said as he and Rowen and Mandoria came back, "we already agree that you could take down BE by yourself, he probably knows that too."

The others chuckled at that, then everyone hopped on their respective horses, "do you two need a ride to the castle," Rowen asked.

N:   "We got one, isn't that right, Castile," PE answered as he nudged his brother, "this one decides to come unannounced to this kingdom and doesn't bring his own horse, so he rides with me."

The Spaniard didn't say anything as he walked over to a large steed, one that could support both their weights, and when they had mounted, the Portuguese teased, "Don't fall off, brother, and if you need to hold me, you can."

"I don't need you," Castile began, but then the empire let his horse run at full gallop, forcing the other to hold onto him, much to everyone's amusement. They eventually slowed down, staying by the rest as he asked, "Anyway, who is this person you are supposed to pick up?"

M:   "Heinrich, he's a friend of ours, it's a long story," Neflen shrugged, "from what I hear, he got himself drunk over three shots of whiskey?"

"Pretty much, a lightweight if I saw one," Esha scoffed, "I bet he's still passed out right now, I call not it on letting him ride with me."

"No thank you," Neflen declared as well.

"Rowen and I are using our parent cards," Mandoria chuckled, "that means you're up, Johann."

N:   Johann grumbled, "Alright, but if he throws up on me, I'm going to blame it on you all. Then I'll throw it on you."

"Where is the decency in that," PE asked.

"The point is that there isn't." When they had finally arrived at the Unicorn, the Mandorian made his way towards the back, asking Wyatt where Heinrich was being kept. When he finally reached the right door, he knocked on it and called out the Saxon's name.

When he did, he heard a bit of shuffling so he knocked again. "Heinz," he called out, "are you ok in there?"

There wasn't a response, so when he was about to call him again, Callum swung the door wide open, his face red and flustered, and was confused to see Johann there for a moment. "Oh, ummm," he stuttered, "he's fine, although he talks a lot. Give him one or two shots and he'll probably shut up."

"Huh," was all Johann responded before watching the Scot rush passed him, avoiding eye contact until he reached the bar. Confused by this, the Mandorian walked in and saw his friend lying down on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling before turning his blue eyes towards him.

"Where did he go," Heinrich asked, staring at Johann in confusion, "where?"

"What happened?"

The Saxon turned back to the ceiling, "Home. Bitte?"

The Mandorian sighed as he helped Heinz get up and walk, since he was still unstable on his feet, walking past Callum, who didn't say a word the entire time. Sensing that there was something that happened, Johann smirked, "See you soon at the ball, Callum. With your date."

Both of the young men's faces blushed red, amusing the Mandorian as he made his way back to the group.

M:   The others didn't notice anything off when Johann and Heinrich came out, they thought that the Saxon's red face was from alcohol.

"Did you seriously keep drinking after we left," Esha asked, shaking her head in disbelief, "when I called you a lightweight, that was a statement, not a challenge, what will your mother say when we bring you home?"

N:   Heinrich tried to speak but couldn't make a sound, only wordlessly mounting Comet with Johann behind him, making sure that the Saxon doesn't fall off while his horse followed the Mandorian's.

"I agree," the Mandorian quietly teased, "what will your mother say?"

"Halt's Maul (shut up), Jo," he grumbled as he looked ahead, watching the endless snow until they reached the compound, and when they did, Erna was waiting at the stables, arms crossed.

Ignoring the new guests, she went up to Heinrich and pulled him off Comet, "You said that you will meet up with us at the Unicorn later, and you weren't even there. For an hour, Heinz, Wolfe and I just left, so explain yourself."

Johann beat him to it as he dismounted, "er war mit Callum (he was with Callum)," he answered then he shrugged, "und es passierte etwas (and something happened)."

The female Saxon raised a brow as she looked at her friend in light of the new information, "Well, I'll take him then, see how he is and why he looks tipsy, while you have fun taking whoever those countries are around. Auf Wiedersehen."

"Wait, nein," Johann called out, but she was already taking Heinrich back inside so he sighed and turned to show PE and Castile around, but the pair was already off. "Seriously," he grumbled, "you could have at least waited."

M:   "They probably already know this place, let them be," Esha shrugged, "come on, I want to see if England is still with the babies."

"He wasn't when I left," Mandoria reported, "though I think that's because Scotland wanted him to do something, he might be back by now."

"Only one way to find out," the eternal declared, then dragged Johann with her to the dining hall.

When they arrived they saw that England was indeed still with the dragons, this time he was holding Mira and trying to feed her a bottle, but she wouldn't respond to him.

Esha's smile faded and she walked up to them, crouching down next to them, "She's not doing very good, huh?"

N:   England shook his head, "And I don't know why. I tried everything, and every time she wouldn't drink from the bottle." He sighed as he placed the bottle down and ended up petting Mira, rubbing her back as he laid her in his lap.

He looked up at them and asked, "Is Sleipnir back? Maybe he can help since he is her father."

M:   "Maybe, I don't know how though," Esha shrugged, glancing over at a sleeping Edel, "I don't understand why Edel isn't helping, but I guess it's just hard for a first-time mom."

Sleipnir soon came in and walked up to them, he sniffed at Mira a little bit before going up to Edel and nuzzling him awake. The dragon looked very tired and drained, though it was most likely just the hormones finally leaving his body. Through some persuasion by Sleipnir, Edel managed to grab his baby back and started breathing a little bit of fire on her. The fire helped almost immediately as Mira was much more alert and was squealing for food.

N:   When seeing this, England rushed over to Mira, the bottle in hand, and gently guided her to it, and he smiled when he saw that she was drinking the milk this time around. "There, there, Mira," he softly smiled, smoothing down her fur, "don't drink it too quickly."

The Englishman made quiet hushing sounds as the room quietened, the sound of Mira echoing in the hall, and when the bottle was finished, he asked for another bottle to be prepared while he let the child rest for a bit.

"Of course, all of this is hard on Edel," the country commented, "he just gave birth to three children at the same time, and someone with three sons myself and struggling myself, I can only imagine how it is for him." He petted the dragon's snout and smiled, "But you're doing great, buddy."

M:   Edel purred in thanks, slowly laying his head back down to go back to sleep, and no sooner than he did the two others woke up and began crying for food too.

"Not even a day old and already so demanding," Esha chuckled, picking up Byron, "you three are going to be a handful, aren't you guys."

N:   "Welcome to parenthood," England joked while another bottle was brought, although the country asked for more to be prepared. Taking the filled bottle, he beckoned Johann and brought him over to Quinn, handing over the bottle to him.

"Let's see if you can make your fathers proud by learning how to take care of a newborn, hum," the country spoke, "and maybe some practice for the future?" Before Johann could say anything, he continued, "I know the look of someone who sees another in their future, I have children, you know, so don't you think you're fooling me."

The Mandorian nervously coughed as he knelt next to Quinn, following England's instructions and soon he was feeding the child, making sure he was comfortable when he did.

When more bottles were brought, England handed another to Esha and smirked, "Let's see if your millions of years of existence have paid off."

M:   "Hey now, I was mated with Neflen, remember," Esha laughed, "this isn't my first time with children, though I will admit that I may be a bit rusty."

Luckily, everyone managed to feed the whelps just fine, though Byron was eating twice as much as his siblings and Esha had to deny him any more food. Now with full bellies, the little ones settled back to sleep while Esha put more wood on the fire.

"I forgot how sensitive whelps are to temperature," she declared, "we need to make sure they get enough heat so they don't crash on us again."

N:   "And especially that they are part dragon," England added, "they need the extra heat."

As soon as he spoke, BE entered the room, and PE poked his head in, his jaw dropping. "I thought you were crazy when you said that Edel was in your dining hall, Albion," he muttered, looking at the family, "now I think I'm the one who is, and there's more of them. Please don't tell me you're planning to use this hall for Yule."

"Of course not," the Brit shook his head in amusement, "with the children, the flower, and the cage messing up the tiles, we're moving it somewhere else."

"Good," the other nodded, "now you need to explain to me about everything that happened. It seems like you were in a whole different world."

"I sure was," BE smiled as they both waved goodbye and left.

England sighed, "They are probably the only empires I have seen who genuinely are friends, and I am happy that Albion has someone like PE."

"There is someone in this world who doesn't hate the British and can actually like them," Johann spoke in mock surprise, "and I thought that was impossible."

M:   Esha burst out laughing, accidentally waking up Edel and earning a growl from him, the eternal eventually left to go check on her other animals.

Elsewhere in the castle, Uskaine and Askad were searching for Sofia again, they could never keep track of where she went except for her scent, but with the cold, it was harder for the Naga to even move much.

Sofia herself was tracking a scent too, she smelled PE and was going to investigate, as well as find BE to give him something she made. When she did find them she ran up to the British empire to show him her drawing, it was of her and him and their families having a snowball fight together.

N:   BE took the drawing and smiled while PE looked over his shoulder and smirked, "So, you're letting yourself have fun then? Getting along with Ireland?"

"Don't get any ideas," the Brit spoke before turning to Sofia, "this is beautiful, Sofia. Also, I would like you to meet a friend of mine, Portuguese Empire. PE, this is Sofia, a child of the Eternals I was talking about."

The Portuguese nodded before kneeling next to the young girl, "it is nice to meet you, Sofia."

M:   Sofia backed up at first, like the other eternals she was wary of strangers, but her's wasn't as strong so she soon was investigating the newcomer.

She was exceptionally curious about PE's outfits, she hadn't seen a military uniform before, only casual and royal clothing. She really liked a particularly shiny medal on his chest and was trying to take it off to get a better look.

N:   PE chuckled a bit before he unpinned the medal and showed it to Sofia so she could see it better. It was a star with many points, with a ribbon with different shades of blue attached to it, and engraved on it was an anchor with twin ropes winding around it.

"This medal was made when my people made the first ships that can stand strong winds, being able to cross oceans without fear and discover new corners of the world. It's to show what my kingdom is capable of, and what I am proud about," he handed the medal over so that Sofia could hold it, "also it's to remind BE here that I'm a better seaman than him."

"Yeah, sure," BE grumbled, "and who is leading the world right now?"

"Spain, France," the Portuguese began to list, "and Dutch Republic is doing pretty well." After getting a light slap on the back of his head, he smiled, "I have passed my peak, but I will always remind you that while you were in your crib, I was the one ruling the waves."

"And look how the tables have turned."

M:   Sofia giggled at the two arguing, but was more focused on the medal, she always loved shiny things. After fiddling with it a bit more she gave it back, then proceeded to climb up BE's cape and perched herself on his shoulders like a cat.

"Uncle BE is jealous of everyone," she announced, leaning her chin on the empire's head, "he wants to be the best but he's not, Uncle Mandoria is, and he smells like fish, I like fish, yummy."

N:   "He does, doesn't he," PE laughed while BE pouted, "Aww, come on, Albion, smile a bit."

"Being told that one smells like an aquatic creature is not a laughing matter," the Brit grumbled.

"But why would you be offended," the other chuckled, "I agree with Sofia. Fish is yummy, and it's nice and healthy for you, also you swim like a fish does-"

"Do not encourage this behavior, PE."

M:   "But it's true, you're King Fish," Sofia laughed, "you make a fish face too sometimes, like this."

The child squished BE's cheeks to force him to make a fish face, and at that moment her parents walked in on them and started laughing.

"Aww, is Uncle BE doing his fish impression again," Askad joked, "he ought to grow gills like Auntie Esha if he keeps doing that, huh."

"Yeah, he's King Fish, he must have gills," Sofia agreed, earning more laughter.

N:   BE just stood there, staring in disappointment at the Eternals and the Portuguese laughing at him. "Go on," he grumbled, "get it all out of your system everyone."

"Wait," PE gasped between bouts of laughter, "if you're the King Fish, you ought to speak like one. No more English." The empire proceeded to make gulping noises like a fish, and when the Brit tried to speak, he placed his finger on the other's lips, making more fish noises.

The Portuguese laughed a bit more before turning to Askad and Uskaine, "So you're the other Eternals that BE took in. The name's Portuguese Empire, but just call me PE, and I thank you if this is how you joke around with BE. The man is sometimes too serious and needs fun in his life."

M:   "That is so true, everyone needs to be silly at least once a day, being too serious all the time just brings you down," Uskaine said, "it's nice to meet you PE, my name is Uskaine and this is my mate, Askad, Sofia is his daughter that I help raise."

Askad took the liberty of removing his offspring from BE's head and held her in his arms, "there is one more Eternal, knowing that you already met Esha and Neflen, his name is Odrus but he was in an accident recently and has not recovered from it yet."

"It's a long story," Uskaine declared, "nothing worth sharing. Besides that, it's good to see an empire that isn't so serious, we've only met BE and we were worried that all empires were going to be like him."

N:   "Trust me, PE is an exception," BE spoke, "the rest of the empires are not like him; he's too outgoing for his own good."

"But you will never know, that may be the key to my long-lasting empire," PE smirked before turning to the Eternals, "compared to the others, I am the oldest European colonial empire, and if you saw me a couple of centuries ago, I wouldn't be so different to BE here. I guess the centuries were not kind to me, and I totally blame my family for my decline, but I've come to appreciate the things around me. Bear in mind, I still have a global empire, but I like to focus on trading outposts with the occasional colony."

"That's why you're the old generation," the Brit said as he crossed his arms, "you've lost your touch."

"Remember, Spanish Empire is one of the 'oldies', but he sure isn't stopping any time soon. You're just beginning to grasp yours," the Portuguese answered back, "the moment the war with your son ends, there will be a new era for you, I know it."

The other smiled a bit before the Portuguese said, "Anyways, let's check on your friend, shall we?"

M: Askad and Uskaine exchanged glances, they were apprehensive about exposing their friend to a stranger in his vulnerable state, but they figured that this one wasn't much of a threat so it wouldn't hurt anyone.

"Sure, I guess you can come see him if you want," Askad shrugged, "just don't really expect a greeting from him, if he's even awake yet."

They all went to the infirmary, not really expecting Odrus to be out of stasis yet, so when they saw him awake and teaching Prudoria a bit of magic it surprised them greatly.

"Hey guys," he said when he noticed them come in, "why did you let me miss Edel's babies?"

"Odrus, you're awake," Uskaine exclaimed, walking up to his bedside, "how, we thought you were in stasis?"

"Nope, just resting from using up my energy," the eternal said tiredly, "I still can't move very well though."

N:   PE tilted his head in confusion, to see how Prudoria resembled Prussia, the mention of magic, and what Odrus used his energy up on; however, he pushed them aside for now.

"So you must be, Odrus," the empire spoke, "I'm PE, a friend of BE's, and someone who wishes you a rapid path to recovery." He glanced around and saw Anglo resting near Saxon, who was also fast asleep, he then asked, "ok, now what has been happening here?"

M:   "Many, many things," Askad sighed, rubbing his face, "there is always at least one person here at any given time, it would take us days to tell you everything that has happened here."

"Now that I think about it, Prudoria hasn't left the infirmary once since he's been here," Uskaine noted, "why is that, Pruds?"

"I feel safest here," the young country admitted, "British Empire still scares me so I stay here, he doesn't come here that often so I'm not intruding on his territory much."

"I tried to tell him that BE isn't that scary, but it's hard to do that honestly," Odrus said, "the only person he is outwardly friendly with is Sofia, with everyone else it's just his intimidating resting-bitch attitude, no offense BE."

N:   "None taken," BE grumbled.

"And you have to keep up with appearances," PE rolled his eyes then added, "How long has he been here?"

"Less than a week."

The Portuguese hummed, "That means it's a reasonable response. Maybe a bit too much, but it has its reasons."

M:   Prudoria tilted his head in confusion, but Odrus interjected and told him not to worry about it, so he shrugged and went back to his bed to cuddle with his manticore.

"That kid is so sweet," Odrus smiled, "it's hard to imagine that he can remain that innocent after all he's been through."

The others nodded in agreement, then Uskaine took the opportunity to introduce Odrus to PE. "Odrus, this is PE, or Portuguese Empire, he's one of the guests for BE's ball."

"It's nice to meet you, Sir PE," Odrus greeted, "I would shake your hand but I'm afraid my arms hurt too much to move, but it's still a pleasure."

N:   "It's alright," PE replied as he walked up to the Eternal, glancing at Prudoria, examining his injuries, "and I can only agree with you: he needs an incredible amount of strength to go through that."

The Portuguese then noticed the jar next to them, the magic ball whizzing within it, and he reached over to touch it, but was quickly stopped by BE. "What is this," he asked, only observing the jar.

"Something that you shouldn't touch."

"But what is it?"

The Brit sighed, "That thing was in Father, and Prudoria here was able to get it out."

"You didn't answer my question."

"It's from Suebi."

The Portuguese went still, retracting his hand from the jar and taking a couple of steps back, and when he faced BE, his face was deadly serious. "You know that would shut me up, didn't you," he grumbled, "do not tell my family about this. Mention that name around them, especially my grandparents, and things will find a way to destroy his works, and if he did this, then they will be dealing with things they do not understand."

As he watched PE walk over to him, BE muttered, "I knew you would react like that."

"Of course, you did, you bastard," the other ruefully chuckled before turning to Odrus, "you better make sure that kid keeps that well away from my family."

M:   "Don't worry, as long as it stays in that jar it can't hurt anyone," Odrus reassured him, "that thing is the very reason that Suebi had come back to life, but it needs to be anchored to a living creature for him to fully return, so as long as it stays in the container he will gradually fade back to the afterlife."

"And how long will that take," Askad asked, "for Suebi to die?"

"About the same time it would take someone to starve to death," Odrus explained, "the energy attaches to someone and feeds off their energy like a parasite, if it remained within England it most likely would have killed him since he is not as powerful as Ora. But now that he has no connection and no way to make a new one, he will basically starve to death, so I guestimate three weeks at most."

"Geeze, that's a rough way to die," Uskaine muttered, crossing his arms, "Suebi deserves it for sure, but it's still hard to imagine someone slowly and painfully withering away."

N:   "That would mean that he would die just in time for the Yule celebrations," BE spoke, "so that would be a wonderful addition to the already great day."

"BE," PE began to ask, "since Suebi is technically related to you, what would you feel about him dying again?"

The Brit turned to him with a blank expression, "he can die again for all I care. He and I are not related, and if he were to say so, then he is only deceiving himself. Also, after what he did to Father, he's nothing more than another entity."

Satisfied by his answer, the other nodded before turning to Odrus, "Well then, I will let you rest and hopefully I see you later," and with that, he made his way towards the door.

"And where are you going?"

"To find Castile, and hope that he hasn't strained the already weak Anglo-Spanish relations." Right after that, he was gone.

M:   "He's nice, I like him," Prudoria commented, "is everyone coming going to be like him?"

"I unfortunately doubt that," Askad said, "it would be more likely that most of the empires are going to be like BE, but there might be a few people who are at the very least friendly, again, no offense BE."

Meanwhile, Esha was walking around the castle, writing some things down as she talked to a servant about inventory and winter stockpile supplies, just some little things she helped BE with when she was particularly bored.

As she walked she saw Castile coming their way down the hall so she waved at him, "Hey there, Castile was it, hope you're settling in ok, it's a little disorganized with the ball preparations so I hope you aren't inconvenienced.

N:   "I'm starting to think that I should have just stayed back home until our scheduled arrival," Castile grumbled, walking up to Esha, "and I can't exactly help since I have no idea how the Brits even do it."

The Spaniard glanced over at the notes the Eternal was making and added, "But I guess the moment I gave my Status to my son, I really didn't have anything to do since then."

M:   Esha hummed at that, "I can't really sympathize with that, I've been on my own most of my life, with no one to rely on than number one, I'm still getting used to the idea of willingly giving power to someone else, even if they are your next of kin."

She jotted a few more things on her list and gave it to the servant, "Well, if you want something to do I was just about to go hunting with Wolfgang and Erna, I don't think they'll mind if you want to join."

N:   "Finally, something I can do," Castile sighed as he went along with Esha to find the two Saxons. It took them a while, but they finally found them near the armory, collecting some supplies. Erna looked up from checking her musket when she waved at the two, shaking hands with Castile. "It's nice to see you, Castile," she spoke, "now friendlier terms."

"And it is good to see you out of that kingdom," the Spaniard nodded, tuning to Wolfgang, "and this one looks like the rest of the knights.

Erna chuckled a bit while the other Saxon grumbled, "Yet here I am." Standing up straight, he gave the country a once over before saying, "If you're joining us, there are some supplies in the armory. We were thinking of not going too far so we're going to go on foot, if that's alright with the both of you."

M:   "Fine by me, Sleipnir is on paternity leave anyway," Esha shrugged, walking over to a trunk with her name on it, "and if anyone gets too tired to keep walking I can always carry you like last time, huh Wolfie."

The eternal pulled out her trusty bow and quiver and loaded up on arrows, also making sure to grab some rope, she never went hunting without some since it could be useful in many situations.

"I will never understand why you guys hunt with muskets," she commented, poking Erna's musket like it was a foreign object to her, "they're only reliable at 100 yards and will scare any game away from the area, bows can fire nearly 500 yards and are completely silent, so when you take down one animal you don't have to go looking for the next one."

N:   "A couple of reasons," Erna explained, "the one main reason is that we never learned how to use a bow. Secondly, especially for rookies in an army, it is easier to learn how to shoot a musket than a bow and arrow, and where it takes years of practice to master archery, you can get a decent amount of well-trained musketeers within months."

"And finally," Wolfgang added, "it makes it more fun when we scare them off, then we start to compete on who can find the most game. In doing so, we practice how to find animals quicker."

"But that is not useful for when you are hunting for food, food that you need to survive off," Castile spoke when he came back with his rifle.

"Then we are lucky that we currently do not have that problem," the male Saxon spoke, "it's good practice either way."

M:   Esha rolled her eyes, "although I see your reasoning and even agree with it to a degree, I still am not convinced that a black powder gun is better than a bow, I'm just glad your evolution hasn't reached the stage of mass destruction weaponry that can fire hundreds of rounds in seconds, that is one part of humanity I do not wish to see come back."

The eternal paused for a second then suddenly left, returning a minute later with her snow leopard in tow, "I figured we might as well have a hunting hound with us, and who better to do that than Sasha, a creature who was born to hunt in cold climates."

She scratched Sasha's ear, earning a deep purring from the feline, though she chuffed at Wolfie in warning, she dislikes him ever since the cucumber incident with him and Johann.

N:   Wolfgang weakly smiled, "ja, that would be a great idea, but just make sure I'm not alone with her or she would probably hunt me down."

"And what did you do," Erna sighed.

"Johann and I discovered how high a snow leopard could jump," the Saxon awkwardly smiled, and although he found the incident hilarious, he obviously couldn't laugh right in front of Sasha.

"Alright," Castile spoke as he clapped his hands for attention, "unless you are willing to freeze your arses off but standing around and doing nothing, let's go."

M:   "Yes sir," Esha chuckled, "and Wolfie, maybe me putting you in charge of Sasha will teach you not to do something when you are told to, I made it very clear to never put a cucumber behind a cat, BE is still pissed about the claw marks in his ceiling."

With that out of the way, the eternal sent Sasha ahead of them as they walked into the woods, while making sure they didn't stray too far away from her trails. She knew this forest better than anyone, she knew where the best places to find game were, and the predator territories to avoid.

"Castile, you have hunted before right," Esha asked later, "I'm sure you have but if you're inexperienced I want it to be known that I'm not carrying your ass out of here if you get mauled or gored by an animal."

N: "Well aren't you kind," Castile rolled his eyes as he tightened his grip on his rifle, "I've done this for a long time, but I am not used to the English weather, animals, or environment, so do forgive me if I somehow lose an arm."

"And why are we discussing the possibility of being horribly injured," Erna asked, "of all times, this isn't going to give us the best luck if you keep that up."

M:   "Because hunting is dangerous and you need to be prepared to be injured in some way," Esha grumbled, "but whatever, let's just focus for now, ok."

The group went silent after that, Esha knew she was being a little harsh, but she took hunting very seriously and really didn't like it when people would goof off. Most of the time she would hunt alone because of this, only Wolfgang and Erna would put up with her seriousness, everyone else says she sucks the fun out of it, which angered her immensely. There is nothing fun about taking a life, she did not enjoy killing animals who had just as much a will to live as she did, it was only for survival and she respected every creature she took down, honoring their sacrifice and never taking more than she needed.

Eventually, Esha led the group to one of her spots that was well known for boar and the occasional deer, she nimbly climbed up a tree for a better vantage point and whistled for Sasha to return for the time being.

"I can see some fresh boar signs today," she called down to the others, "not terribly fresh though, Wolf, go to those tracks in the D7 quadrant and tell me how old you think they are."

N:   Wolfgang nodded, and after reorienting himself and remembering which quadrant was such, he walked over to the tracks and knelt down next to it, making an imprint next to it to use as a reference.

"The marks look ok," he called back, "the edges are pretty sharp so I would say eight ... nine hours old, but the damn snow always makes this process hard."

M:   Esha hummed at that, "Alright, if they're that old and there aren't many other signs around here then the rooting must not be very good this year, we'll try over by the rock overhang next, thanks, Wolfie."

She hopped back down and they headed off to the next game area, though she was wary about it since it was also a favorite resting spot for a wandering pack of wolves that have been seen around the area, but she has tracked their travel patterns and was fairly certain they were in the far east side of the forest at this time of the month.

"Hey, just a heads up Castile, this next spot sometimes has a pack of wolves hanging around it," she warned the country, "they should be a few miles east of here by now but winter makes their travel patterns unpredictable."

N:   Castile shrugged as he trudged forward, "At least we can guess where they are. Better some information than none."

"Look at that," Erna smirked as he lightly nudged Wolfgang, "you're going to meet your boys."

"Ernie, not now," the other grumbled but he couldn't help but smile, "my name has nothing to suggest anything."

"Ok, Wolfe," she quietly chuckled, to which the couple went on for a bit before falling quiet, out of respect but also the sensed a change. They looked around and realized that there were a lot of paw marks in the snow, so they turned back to the Eternal.

"How unpredictable is unpredictable," Erna asked.

M:   Esha tilted her head in confusion at the tracks, kneeling down to get a better look, "more unpredictable than usual, these are only about an hour to an hour and a half old, and it looks like there might have been a scuffle."

Sasha suddenly started chuffing from behind a few trees, telling the two legs that she had found something. Esha walked over to investigate but gasped at the sight, there was a dead wolf, mutilated and lying in a pool of red.

"This was the alpha male," she informed them, running her hand through the bloody fur, "looks like he was killed by another wolf, a rouge challenger with a crooked jaw, probably an old wound that didn't heal properly. We need to be extra careful now, with a new leader that pack will be very dangerous and unpredictable, so no one stray from the group, alright."

N:   The three of them nodded, and Wolfgang added, "And let's delay when we are to shoot. We don't want to announce ourselves here to the whole forest."

"Si, that wouldn't be good," Castile nodded as he looks down at the mutilated wolf, "stick together and everything will be fine, right?"

"Hopefully," Erna muttered before turning to Esha, "so, where to next? You know this place better than any of us."

M:   "Well, definitely not the overhang, that's for sure," Esha commented, "the next place I would go is the creek that flows into the lake, the water flows just fast enough that it doesn't freeze over in the winter."

She looked around to make sure they weren't being watched, "let's keep on high alert, normally wolves wouldn't attack a group of people, but when in a pack it can make them bolder."